HYMN XVI. Indra.
1. PRAISE Indra whom our songs must laud, sole Sovran of mankind, the Chief
Most liberal who controlleth men.
2. In whom the hymns of praise delight, and all the glory-giving songs.
Like the floods’ longing for the sea.
3. Him I invite with eulogy, best King, effective in the fight,
Strong for the gain of mighty spoil.
4. Whose perfect ecstasies are wide, profound, victorious, and give
joy in the field where heroes win.
5. Him, when the spoils of war are staked, men call to be their advocate:
They who have Indra win the day.
6. Men honour him with stirring songs and magnify with solemn rites:
Indra is he who giveth case.
7. 1ndra is priest and Rsi, he is much invoked by many men,
And mighty by his mighty powers.
8. Meet to be lauded and invoked, true Hero with his deeds of might,
Victorious even when alone.
9. The men, the people magnify that Indra with their Slina. songs,
With hymns and sacred eulogies.
10. Him who advances them to wealth, sends light to lead them in the war,
And quells their foemen in the fray.
11. May he, the saviour much-invoked, may Indra bear us in a ship
Safely beyond all enemies.
12 As such, O Indra, honour us with gifts of booty, further us,
And lead us to felicity.
HYMN XVII Indra.
1. COME, we have pressed the juice for thee; O Indra, drink this Soma here
Sit thou on this my sacred grass.
2. O Indra, let thy long-maned Bays, yoked by prayer, bring thee hitherward
Give car and listen to our prayers.
3. We Soma-bearing Brahmans call thee Soma-drinker with thy friend,
We, Indra, bringing Soma juice.
4. Come unto us who bring the juice, come unto this our eulogy,
Fair-visored! drink thou of the juice.
5. I pour it down within thee, so through all thy members let it spread:
Take with. thy tongue the pleasant drink.
6. Sweet to thy body let it be, delicious be the savoury juice:
Sweet be the Soma to thine heart.
7. Like women, let this Soma-draught, invested with its robe, approach,
O active Indra, close to thee.
8. Indra, transported with the juice, vast in his bulk, strong in his neck
And stout arms, smites the Vrtras down.
9. O Indra, go thou forward, thou who rulest over all by might:
Thou Vrtra-slayer slay the fiends,
10. Long be thy grasping-hook wherewith thou givest ample wealth to him
Who sheds the juice and worships thee.
11. Here, Indra, is thy Soma-draught, made pure upon the sacred grass:
Run hither, come and drink thereof.
12. Famed for thy radiance, worshipped well this juice is shed for thy delight
Thou art invoked, Akhandala!
13. To Kundapayya, grandson’s son, grandson of Srngavrs! to thee,
To him have I addressed my thought.
14. Strong pillar thou, Lord of the home armour of Soma-offerers:
The drop of Soma breaketh all the strongholds down, and Indra is the Rsis’ Friend.
15. Holy Prdikusanu, winner of the spoil, one eminent o’er many men,
Lead on the wild horse Indra with his vigorous grasp forward to drink the Soma juice.
HYMN XVIII. Adityas.
1. Now let the mortal offer prayer to win the unexampled grace
Of these Adityas and their aid to cherish life.
2. For not an enemy molests the paths which these Adityas tread:
Infallible guards, they strengthen us in happiness.
3. Now soon may Bhaga, Savitar, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman
Give us the shelter widely spread which we implore.
4. With Gods come thou whose fostering care none checks, O Goddesss Aditi:
Come, dear to many, with the Lords who guard us well.
5. For well these Sons of Aditi know to keep enmities aloof,
Unrivalled, giving ample room, they save from woe.
6. Aditi guard our herd by day, Aditi, free from guile, by night,
Aditi, ever strengthening, save us from grief!
7. And in the day our hymn is this: May Aditi come nigh to help,
With loving-kindness bring us weal and chase our foes.
8. And may the Asvins, the divine Pair of Physicians, send us health:
May they remove iniquity and chase our foes.
9. May Agni bless us with his fires, and Surya warm us pleasantly:
May the pure Wind breathe sweet on us, and chase our foes.
10. Drive ye disease and strife away, drive ye away malignity:
Adityas, keep us ever far from sore distress.
11. Remove from us the arrow, keep famine, Adityas! far away:
Keep enmities afar from us, Lords of all wealth!
12. Now, O Adityas, grant to us the shelter that lets man go free,
Yea, even the sinner from his sin, ye Bounteous Gods 1
13. Whatever mortal with the powe r of demons fain would injure us,
May he, impetuous, suffer harm by his own deeds.
14. May sin o’ertake our human foe, the man who speaketh evil thing,
Him who would cause our misery, whose heart is false.
15. Gods, ye are with the simple ones, ye know each mortal in your hearts;
Ye, Vasus, well discriminate the false and true.
16. Fain would we have the sheltering aid of mountains and of water-floods:
Keep far from us iniquity, O Heaven and Earth.
17. So with auspicious sheltering aid do ye, O Vasus, carry us
Beyond all trouble and distress, borne in your ship.
18. Adityas, ye Most Mighty Ones, grant to our children and their seed
Extended term of life that they may live long days.
19. Sacrifice, O Adityas, is your inward monitor: be kind,
For in the bond of kindred we are bound to you.
20. The Maruts’ high protecting aid, the Asvins, and the God who saves,
Mitra and Varuna for weal we supplicate.
21. Grant us a home with triple guard, Aryaman, Mitra, Varuna!
Unthreatened, Maruts! meet for praise, and filled with men.
22. And as we human beings, O Adityas, are akin to death,
Graciously lengthen ye our lives that we may live.
HYMN XIX. Agni.
1. SING praise to hiin, the Lord of Light. The Gods have made the God to be their messenger,
And sent oblation to Gods.
2. Agni, the Bounteous Giver, bright with varied flames, laud thou, O singer Sobhari-
Him who controls this sacred food with Soma blent, who hath first claim to sacrifice.
3. Thee have we chosen skilftillest in sacrifice, Immortal Priest among the Gods,
Wise finisher of this holy rite:
4. The Son of Strength, the blessed, brightly shining One, Agni whose light is excellent.
May be by sacrifice win us in heaven the grace of Mitra, Varuna, and the Floods.
5. The mortal who hath ministered to Agni with oblation, fuel, ritual lore,
And reverence, skilled in sacrifice.
6. Verily swift to run are his fleet-footed steeds, and most resplendent fame is his.
No trouble caused by Gods or wrought by mortal man from any side o’ertaketh him.
7. May we by thine own fires be well supplied with fire, O Son of Strength, O Lord of Might:
Thou as our Friend hast worthy men.
8. Agni, who praises like a guest of friendly mind, is as a car that brings us gear.
Also in thee is found perfect security thou art the Sovran Lord of wealth.
9. That man, moreover, merits praise who brings, auspicious Agni, sacrificial gifts
May he win riches by his thoughts.
10. He for whose sacrifice thou standest up erect is prosperous and rules o’er men.
He wins with coursers and with singers killed in song: with heroes he obtains the prize.
11. He in whose dwelling Agni is chief ornament, and, all-desired, loves his laud well,
And zealously tends his offerings-
12. His, or the lauding sage’s word, his, Son of Strength! who Is most prompt with sacred gifts,
Set thou beneath the Gods, Vasu, above mankind, the speech of the intelligent.
13. He who with sacrificial gifts or homage bringeth very skilful Agni nigh,
Or him who flashes fast with song,
14. The mortal who with blazing fuel, as his laws command, adores the Perfect God,
Blest with his thoughts in splendour shall exceed all men, as though he overpassed the floods.
15. Give us the splendour, Agni, which may overcome each greedy fiend in our abode,
The wrath of evil-hearted folk.
16. That, wherewith Mitra, Varuna, and Aryaman, the Asvins, Bhaga give us light,
That may we, by thy power finding best furtherance, worship, O Indra, helped by thee.
17.O Agni, most devout are they, the sages who have set thee Sage exceeding wise,
O God, for men to look upon:
18. Who have arranged thine altar Blessed God, at morn brought thine oblation, pressed the juice.
They by their deeds of strength have won diem, mighty wealth, who have set all their hope in thee.
19. -May Agni worshipped bring us bliss, may the gift, Blessed One, and sacrifice bring bliss;
Yea, may our praises bring us bliss.
20. Show forth the mind that brings success in war with fiends, wherewith thou conquerest in fight.
Bring down the many firm hopes of our enemies, and let us vanquish with thine aid.
21. I praise with song the Friend of man, whom Gods sent down to be herald and messenger,
Best worshipper, bearer of our gifts.
22. Thou unto sharp-toothed Agni, Young and Radiant God, proclaimest with thy song the feast-
Agni, who for our sweet strains moulds heroic strength when sacred oil is offered him,
23. While, served with sacrificial oil, now upward and now downward Agni moves his sword,
As doth the Asura his robe.
24. The God, the Friend of man, who bears our gifts to heaven, the God with his sweet-smelling mouth,
Distributes, skilled in sacrifice, his precious things, Invoking Priest, Immortal God.
25. Son of Strength, Agni, if thou wert the mortal, bright as Mitra, I worshipped with our gifts!
And I were the Immortal God
26. I would not give thee up, Vasu, to calumny, or misery, O Bounteous One.
My worshipper should feel no hunger or distress, nor, Agni, should he live in sin.
27. Like a son cherished in his father’s houi§e, let our oblation rise unto the Gods.
28. With thine immediate aid may I, excellent Agni, ever gain my wish
A mortal with a God to help.
29. O Agni, by thy wisdom, by thy bounties, by thy leading may I gather wealth.
Excellent Agni, thou art called my Providence: delight thou to be liberal.
30. Agni, he conquers by thine aid that brings him store of noble heroes and great strength,
Whose bond of friendship is thy choice.
31. Thy spark is black and crackling, kindled in due time, O Bounteous, it is taken up.
Thou art the dear Friend of the mighty Mornings: thou shinest in glimmerings of the night.
32. We Sobharis have come to him, for succour, who is good to help with thousand powers,
The Sovran, Trasadasyu’s Friend.
33. O Agni, thou on whom all other fires depend, as branches on the parent stem,
I make the treasures of the folk, like songs, mine own, while I exalt thy sovran might.
34. The mortal whom, Adityas, ye, Guilelew, lead to the farther bank
Of all the princes, Bounteous Ones
35. Whoe’er he be, Man-ruling Kings! the Regent of the race of men-
May we, O Mitra, Varuna, and Aryaman, like him be furtherers of your law.
36. A gift of fifty female slaves hath Trasadasyu given me, Purukutsa’s son,
Most liberal, kind, lord of the brave.
37. And Syava too for me led forth a strong steed at Suvastu’s ford:
A herd of three times seventy kine, good lord of gifts, he gave to me.
